1 Thessalonians 4:1-2 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
We live in a culture where “anything goes.” The normal is no longer allowed, gender has become a quagmire, the labels of right and wrong have been banned, and saying so can get you “cancelled.” Everyone must find their own path, especially if it rejects any conservative moral lessons.
But life isn’t a gravity-free zone. There are rules that exist that play out their outcomes regardless of our belief in them or not. No amount of denial will erase the natural consequences of certain actions. But even this idea is ignored as we send a generation into adulthood untethered from the moorings that have held civilizations together throughout history.
Universities have become places of indoctrination, rather than places that encouraged free thinking and open discussion. The past and its lessons have been jettisoned by those who get offended by any reminder that beliefs have consequences. So as a result we tear down monuments of the mistakes of the past in order to sanitize history to fit the current narrative. There are no consequences for actions!
But there are a few people on the planet who still acknowledge the reality of consequences for behavior. The apostle Paul was one such person in his day and age. As a leader in the Early Church, Paul stood firmly on the ground of consequences to behavior.
If someone wanted to claim Jesus as Lord, then their behavior had to match that profession. There were things, lifestyle choices, actions and attitudes that were not acceptable for a people called to live lives that mirrored the holiness of God. Some things were off limits to Jesus-followers.
We see this pointed out in our text. Paul had given them “instructions” about how to live. We have a good idea about some of those by reading the rest of this chapter.
I have known some people in my life who refuse to read the Owners Manual for anything they have acquired. And then they get frustrated when they can’t figure out how the thing works, or it behaves in a manner they don’t expect. They sometimes even discard the item out of frustration. Stubbornness has won. Just read the manual!
The life of faith has a manual, and we need to read it repeatedly. There are certain ways that life will be lived successfully, and ways that have Stop Signs all around them. Warning lights can be flashing, but some people think the lights are pretty and they proceed without caution.
But life has a Designer, someone who knows how humans function at their best. Recently I was working with some nails and a hammer, and you guessed it, I hit my finger with the hammer, not once, but twice. I now bear the mark of those missed hammer strokes. The consequences will be with me for several months as the blood under my fingernail moves inexorably toward the tip of my finger.
The Christian life lived well is lived within boundaries. We are not free to do anything we please and still expect to receive the blessing of God and others. Life has its rules, and we don’t escape those rules. Some people, for instance, go through sexual partners like Dixie Cups at a Fourth of July picnic and expect that there will be no consequences to those actions. And then when they don’t have a satisfying life of intimacy with their spouse they wonder why.
The Christian life has instructions, so read the Manual!
The Arnold Journey 